


when it rains

by MegaSheep



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst, Drabble, Female My Unit | Byleth, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Spoilers, Gen, Mentioned Blue Lions Students (Fire Emblem), Old Injuries, Rain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-22
Updated: 2019-11-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:07:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21525703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MegaSheep/pseuds/MegaSheep
Summary: Byleth always knew when it was going to rain. Her knee would throb dully at first and then crescendo into something that made her steps falter. It was an old injury, a stupid injury, but one that never let her forget it was there.
Relationships: Jeralt Reus Eisner & My Unit | Byleth
Comments: 14
Kudos: 57





	when it rains

When Fodlan’s skies filled with grey clouds and then broke open in a downpour, her knee ached.

It was an old injury, one she had received when she was no older than twelve or thirteen. It had been raining that day too. The battle itself was unmemorable for Byleth. It had been a blur of this: a tremendous storm that turned the dirt paths their mercenary groups traversed into a nightmare of boots suctioning to the wet earth and coming off of feet; a nightmare of horses slowly meandering the wet sludge and nickering in protest as their handlers urged them along. It was a nightmare of the bandits that they were currently after getting the best of them. They used the pitter-patter of rain and distant thunder as cover for an ambush. The clashing of swords was white noise to her, the grunting and occasional yelp of battle not at all alarming to her. The battle was unmemorable, until it wasn’t.

A bandit had snuck up behind the horse she sat upon, spooking it and sending her crashing into the cement-like mud. A mercenary’s cry from her left startled a different horse into a frenzy. Now, what she did remember vividly from that battle was this: a hoof coming down hard on her knee; a resounding  _ snap _ that shot clear through the din of battle; a sword piercing through the bandit’s chest right as they were beginning to lunge at her; her father’s stern face, stricken with wet soil and blood and with an expression she had never seen before. Worry. Fury.

Her knee healed, though it never ceased in sending her twinges of stiff pain. It was mended by healers though when the weather would turn it would throb. Every rainy day. Her students noticed, though at first they were often too polite or too nervous to say anything. Once, she had caught Mercedes eyeing her knee brace pointedly and had simply stared blankly at her in return. In battle, she could never let the stiffness get in her way. Felix had pointed out that when they sparred on rainy days, she overcompensated with her right.

“It’s a tell,” he’d said. “You should fix that.”

It was sweet, in a weird Felix sort of way.

Both Dedue and Ashe had offhandedly mentioned several varieties of plants that they kept in the Monastery greenhouse that were known to soothe muscle aches. Annette would sometimes baked her sweets out of the blue when the weather changed, quick as a thunderbolt.

Byleth had long since accepted that the pain would never completely fade, not even for a moment, and she was alright with that.

On the day that a knife found its way into her father’s back, the skies filled with swaths of clouds. The ground beneath them soon turned into the sludge that could yank off mercenary's boots. Her weight rested on her bad knee. The soil was soft, almost a cushion as she held her father’s body in her arms.

The ache had vanished for a single moment. Overhead, the clouds grew so heavy that rain began to fall. Droplets fell on Jeralt’s slack face, warm tears and cold rain swirling together. The earth grew more malleable.

Her knee grew numb and a new pain blossomed. It threaded through her veins and flooded tears out of her stoic eyes. The storm swirled the world around them as Byleth pulled her father closer to her and wept for the first time.

**Author's Note:**

> three houses snatched my heart, spat on it, then gingerly held it
> 
> my [twitter](https://twitter.com/MegaSheeeep) is now a three houses twitter thanks for your time
> 
> comments and kudos always appreciated!


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